LENVOI. 293 



of trouble and expense which need be involved 

 in the attempt. Those of course who possess 

 the necessary means, and who are not pressed 

 for time, and who moreover are inclined to enter 

 thoroughly and heartily into the spirit of the 

 author's suggestions, can carry them out with 

 the most elaborate completeness. There are 

 abundant facilities for the exercise of the most 

 luxurious and expensive taste in the selection 

 of the accessories needed for transforming into a 

 "Fern Paradise" either dwelling-house or garden. 

 In the drawing-rooms and sitting-rooms of the 

 houses belonging to the rich it is not by any 

 means uncommon to find plant-cases or flower-pots 

 of an ornamental kind. Sometimes a number of 

 these may be found in one room, and the fact 

 is an indication that the owner or some mem- 

 ber of his household possesses a taste which is 

 strongly appreciative of the beauties of nature. 

 Sometimes the plants are ferns, more frequently 

 they are flowering plants ; but even in cases 

 where this taste for introducing plants into the 

 dwelling-house has been exercised more freely 



